Hello everyone!
In case you missed it in the last Slormite Chronicles, we’ve started implementing the new class for The Slormancer directly into the game: The Whimsical Witch.
February was largely split between projects unrelated to The Slormancer and a short vacation break. For family reasons, the game's development pace often slows down during school holidays, which was the case in February. That being said, we still managed to make progress on several aspects of the game, particularly on the Whimsical Witch. At this point, I only have two more skills left to implement. The rest are already functioning properly and mainly need a few assets and a good round of polishing. However, the class is still quite far from being finished. We’ll have quite a bit of internal balancing to do before letting a few testers get their hands on it, people who are much more efficient than the two of us when it comes to quickly spotting technical issues and balance problems.
After last month’s teaser about the mechanics of the Whimsical Witch, here are a few more details about her Support Skills and Specializations.
The Whimsical Witch’s first Support Skill consists of stirring a cauldron with maximum intensity, so intensely that it creates a vortex around her, dealing continuous damage in the surrounding area. Think of it as a stationary Whirlwind that scales with area damage.
Brew Vortex also allows the Witch to automatically gather ingredients for her Potion mechanic while channeling the skill. Certain upgrades will enhance the effects or duration of potions consumed during Brew Vortex. The specialization associated with Brew Vortex is The Potion Chef, which will, among other things, make it easier to gather ingredients and improve all effects related to the Potion system (see Chronicles 58).
Spectral Companion allows the Whimsical Witch to summon one of the three base classes (Knight, Huntress, or Mage) in spectral form to assist her. Each class performs a different attack: Whirlwind for the Knight, an enhanced Arrow Shot for the Huntress, and Rift Nova for the Mage.
The Spectral Companion lasts for a few seconds before disappearing and is initially chosen at random from the three classes. With certain upgrades, it will be possible to always summon the same Companion. Another upgrade allows the skill to be cast twice, and a final one lets you summon all three Companions at once.
We tried the version with all three Companions active, it's incredible and incredibly fun.
10/10 would recommend.
The specialization associated with Spectral Companion is The Spirit Guide, which focuses on improving all of the Whimsical Witch’s minion-related spells and increasing their duration. Through the use of Soulstones, it will allow players to either build a massive army or, on the contrary, maintain a small group of elite minions with unlimited duration.
(Above, I'm using Spectral Companion, with non-spectral placeholders)
The Third Eye is a toggle skill that allows the Whimsical Witch to place a spectral eye at a targeted location. Once placed, all skills cast by the Whimsical Witch originate from the Third Eye’s location instead of the Witch’s own position.
This opens up a wide range of possibilities, such as creating new lines of sight without exposing yourself or casting melee abilities without actually being in close combat.
Since we wanted to include some mobility in a Support Skill, one of the first upgrades allows the Witch to swap positions with the Third Eye. We also planned an upgrade that adds a Second Third Eye (yes), which duplicates all the skills cast from the first one.
The specialization associated with The Third Eye is The Fortuneteller, which will provide various generic improvements to several of the Whimsical Witch’s mechanics, such as the Infection system or mechanics related to using Bryan McRipped.
We are aware that progress on additional content for The Slormancer has been a bit slower than during Early Access. After spending so much time on the game, a bit of fatigue has naturally set in, so we’re allowing ourselves some flexibility to explore other ideas and projects that excite us, some of which could potentially lead to a new game. This helps us avoid burning out completely.
Because of this, it’s difficult for us to give a precise release date for upcoming content. We’re likely going to revisit and improve a few elements of the base game and release those changes alongside the new class. We initially hoped to release it around the same time as the console versions, which should arrive sometime this year, but the timelines we’ve received are still too vague to commit to anything yet.
That’s all for today.
As always, these concepts are subject to change and are much easier to understand in-game than in a Chronicles post. I’m sharing what we currently have, and I hope you like it! Cheers!